New Jersey’s governor to decide Icahn’s future

Chris Christie will decide on a legislation that would impose a five year ban on Trump Taj Mahal’s former license holder.

US.- New Jersey’s Governor Chris Christie has the power on his hands to finally establish that Carl Icahn cannot reopen the Trump Taj Mahal with non-union workers. Last week New Jersey Assembly officially approved the new amendment on casino law that will suspend the operation licenses in case of closing procedure.

Even though they didn’t actually specify that it was because of Icahn, the bill was born and started gaining relevancy after Icahn closed the casino last October due to severe problems with the labour union. The international press suggested that Icahn’s company plan was to open another resort in New Jersey’s gambling hub with a new labour force. The current suspension would take place for five years unless he reached an agreement with his employees.

Assemblyman John Burzichelli, D-Gloucester, presented the legislation along with Senate President Stephen Sweeney. He said: “The last thing we want to see is a casino owner taking advantage of bankruptcy laws and pocketing a license or, even worse, stripping workers of benefits and denying them a fair wage because they couldn’t come to the table and strike an agreement.” Sweeney agreed and said that casino owners should not be manipulating the system and bankruptcy in order to get away with breaking the law and take away benefits from the workers. “Atlantic City’s gaming industry is obviously experiencing the difficult challenges of competition from other states, but the answer is not to engage in practices that punish the workers,” he added.

According to Icahn, who wrote an open letter to his former employees, this bill is unconstitutional and it would discourage possible investments in Atlantic City. He also said that it would be impossible for him to open a new casino if he decides to do it in the future.